You must know the tire in your car. In fact, you are at risk if you don’t know the tires that move you around, l personally asked some drivers or motorist two or more questions about their car tires but, their response to my questions show to me that their car tires may put them at risk or bring to them untimely death.

It is unfortunate that most drivers don’t have any vital information on the round black objects that move them around. Such motorists or drivers may pose a high risk on themselves and other road users that is why it is important for you as a motorist to know much about the tires on your car. Here is some of the important information you need to know:

M/S; M+S; MS or M&S:When you see any of these letters on your tire it means such tire has the ability to move your vehicle on a snow and muddy area, with these letters on your tires show that the tires meet the Rubber Manufacture Association guidelines for mud and snow tire.

The Tire Width:235 is the width of a tire measure in millimeters (mm). It is usually measure from sidewall to sidewall. However, the measurement is determined by the size of the rim.

The Tire Aspect Ratio:Aspect ratio is a number that shows the height of the tire from the head to the top of the tread. This is always expressed in percentage of the width. For example, if the aspect ratio of a tire is 75 then the height of the tire is 75% of the given width i.e. (7 5×235/100) =176.25mm. Therefore, the aspect ratio is 175.25mm; hence, the smaller the aspect ratio the wider the tire in relation to is height.

The Tire Traction:Tire traction is usually rated as AA; A; B or C. AA is the highest grade in the rating follow by A, B and C respectively. This rating base on the tire ability to stop a car on wet concrete or asphalt, however, when you see a tire carrying any of these letters on its sidewall, it is simply, showing the tire traction ability of the tire. It is usually written like this on the tire Traction AA; Traction A; Traction B or Traction

C.Temperature:The tire temperature rating is a measure of how well the tire dissipates heat and how well it handles the buildup of heat. The temperature grade is applied to a properly inflated tire that is not over loaded. However, overloading, under inflation or excessive speed are all notable factors that can make your tire to build up heat and excessive heat build up on your tire can cause your tire to wear out faster and it may even lead to tire failure. It is important to note that, tire temperature is usually rated as A, B or C. So when you check the side wall of your tire and you see any of these following: Temperature A or Temperature B or Temperature C. It simply shows you the temperature ability of the tire.

The Tread Wear:First and foremost, please note that the higher the tread wear number the longer you can expect the tread to last. Before the tread numbers can be generated, the tire must be tested in controlled conditions on government test track. However, since no one will be expected to drive his or her own car

on exactly, the same surface at the same speed as the government testing track then, the numbers are not accurate indicator of how long your tread will actually last, but it is a good relative measure, therefore you can expect the tire that carries or has lager number to last longer than the one with smaller number. However, the tread wear number is usually written on the tire side wall like this: Tread wear 440 etc.

Service Description:The service description of a tire consists of two major areas which are Load rating and Speed rating.

Load Rating: This is also a number correlates to the maximum load rated for the tire. It shows to us the maximum Kg that a tire can carry. Therefore, a higher number means that the tire has the higher loading capacity. Nevertheless, a separate note on the tire usually written after the loading rating indicates the loading rating of your tire at a given inflation pressure. E.g.

Max. Load 880 kg

(35-psi) Max. Press. Standard load

This is an example of how the load rating and the recommended air pressure are written on your tires.

Speed Rating: The letter that follows the load rating indicates the maximum speed allowable for such tire as long as the weight is at or below the rated load. For instance, letter S indicates that the tire can handle speed up to 112 mph i.e. (180.246 kph).

The Tire Manufacturing Date:Whenever you want to buy or get a new tire, one of the first things you need to consider or look for is the manufacturing date of the tire you want to buy. This is because a tire is expected to expire after six (6) of its production or manufacturing date. It does not matter whether such tire is used or not, a tire expires after six (6) year of production. Why? It is because tires deteriorate naturally day after day and at the expiration of six (6) years the quality of such tires must have reduced drastically. Hence, it is possible to buy a brand new tire that has not been used before which is indeed an expired tire from the store or seller, that is why you need to check the manufacturing date of the tire before buying it.

How to Check a Tire Manufacturing Date:If you do not know how to check the date from the sidewall of a tire you may end up buying an expired tire. However, the tire manufacturing date is usually different from the common way we are used to write date of an event. For example the date is usually written like this (1012) or (1314) or (3613) etc. However, it is important to note that the first two (2) figures refer to the week of production while the last two (2) figures refer to the year of production. For instance, (1012) means 10th (tenth) week of the year 2012, (3613) means 36th week of the year 2013, etc. Therefore, if the manufacturing date of a tire is (1314) such tire is expected to expire after six (6) years of the said date which is (1320).